This browser does not support the Video element.
DMV native Jermaine Fowler surprises high school teacher
DMV native and 'Coming 2 America' star Jermaine Fowler joins Good Day DC to surprise his high school teacher from Prince George's County.
Star of the new Prime Video film "Coming 2 America" Jermaine Fowler, who also grew up in Prince George's County and attended Northwestern High School, joined FOX 5 on Wednesday to surprise his former high school teacher.
Andre Lee reached out to FOX 5 letting us know that he taught Fowler at Northwestern from 2004 to 2006. FOX 5's Kevin McCarthy coordinated with Fowler to join a Zoom with him and Lee to surprise Lee and let the student and teacher reconnect.
Fowler was in two of Lee's television production classes, a time he remembers fondly.
Download the FOX 5 DC News App for Local Breaking News and Weather
"That was a great era," Lee says, "because our program was still kind of in its embryonic stages of development and Jermaine came through there at a time where great things were beginning to happen."
Fowler says he has taken the lessons he learned in Lee's class and applied them to his career today.
"What I learned in Mr. Lee's class was how to create," Fowler says. "I would make short films at Plaza Towers on Belcrest Road in Hyattsville. That's where I would learn to make movies, make things happen. But, in Mr. Lee's class, that's where I learned how to edit them and structure them and format everything."
WATCH MORE: "Coming 2 America" stars Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall and more discuss sequel
Lee says Fowler would visit him twice a year at Northwestern before the COVID-19 pandemic and he would always ask Fowler to speak to his students about his path to success.
"When I'm in that position to talk to the students, I go, 'They're not going to listen to me,'" Fowler says. "Because kids respond to examples. So I hope there are some folks from that school who have seen 'Coming 2 America' and 'Judas and the Black Messiah' and can say, 'Oh, I can do this now.'"